Project Five | Visual Book
Documentation
Description:
In this project, we are asked to create a bound book using both text and imagery. The book must be 12 or 16 pages. We will incorporate the knowledge of typography and grid systems, and make appropriate design decisions based on the content.
Theme
I was very certain about what I wanted to do for the visual book — food in Pittsburgh. I decided to introduce some unique restuarants / places for food in Pittsburgh in my visual book. However, not all of the the restaurants that I would like to focus on were finalized at the start. Still, I began looking for some inspirations for the project.
Below is the link to some of the inspirations that I found.
I. Sketching and Brainstorming
Because my visual book was about food in Pittsburgh, some of the important elements that I think are: grid system, typography, and quality of the pictures. In my sketches, I mainly focused on the grid system of the book.
II. Draft
Cover
Drawing inspirations from the “The Food Lab” cover above, I decided to used the same type of illustrations for my cover.
Since the visual book is about Pittsburgh, I decided to include an illustration of a bridge on the cover.
Table of Contents
For the table of contents, I also drew inspirations from the picture below and use different pictures about food to create a grid system.
Contents
After deciding on the first restaurant that I would like to do, I started designing the draft according based on the sketch I did.
For each restaurant, I included the name of the restaurant, the address, phone number, and a short description of the restaurant. Because Teppanyaki Kyoto would take up two pages / one spread, I divided one spread into three columns as indicated by the blue gird lines in the figures above. The pictures of the restaruant would take up most of the space, whereas the texts, including the name, address, phone number, and description would be placed at the left-most or right-most column.
Other than the pictures, the name of the restaurant would be of the highest hierarchy, so I enlarged the size of the name of the restaurant. I also used the same yellow as the bridge/the “Contents” to make the visual book more coherent in terms of color. During the process, I felt that the address and the phone number would be the second thing that readers would want to know other than the pictures and the name. To make them stand out, I used the same blue as in the cover page to distinguish them from the description.
Feedback
I did not attend the first critique session due to time conflict. Yet, I printed the cover and two spreads and brought them to the work session for feedback. Other than the feedback, I also realized that there are some parts that needed improvement. Here are some of the main points:
- Although the “CONTENTS” and the name of the restaurant looked nice in yellow on my screen, they looked vary pale and lacked contrast when printed.
- More space between the texts and the pictures so that there would not be moments of tension.
- The white space between pictures should be consistent throughout all the pages.
- The alignment of illustrations and texts should be more strategic.
I made the changes to the draft based on the feedback from last time. The “CONTENTS” were bolded so that it was more obvious to see. The spacing between pictures, and between pictures and texts was also adjusted. However, I did not know exactly how to make appropriate changes to my cover, so I decided to work on the cover once I got the all the contents of the book done.
II. Second Draft
During the spring break, I collected all the pictures and finalized a list of restarutants / places that I would include in the visual book. I also changed the color of the name of the restaurant to black so that the contrast would be better. I fianlly chose Gill Sans for all the texts in the visual book because I felt the typeface looks very clean and lively, which would go along with the theme of the book very well. This would also enhance the coherence of the book.
Grid and layout
I also experimented with a few layouts for different pages. I used different layouts for different the pages/restaurants in order to better incorporate the images. This would also add more variation to the book so that it would not look too boring. Nevertheless, they all have similar grid systems. Bhan Mi & Ti follow the same three-column grid as Teppanyaki Kyoto, since both of them take up two pages. The rest of the pages used a half-half grid system because each page would be about one restaurtant.
Standardized the format
After I had all the content pages, I also decided to standardize the format for all the text portions of the pages. The name of the restaurant would be of 24 pt size. I placed a bar above the name of the restaurant and added icons indicating address and phone number so that it would be easier for readers to navigate the information.
Page numbers and headers
Other than adding the icons and the bar to the texts, I also wanted to work more on details at the page numbers and headers to make my visual book “more like a book”. Adding headers would highlight the theme and make all the pages more coherent. Since the book is about food, I decided to play with my previous illustrations (plate, fork and knife, and bowl) to see how they can be incorporated with the page numbers and headers.
I used Gill Sans Light Italic for page numbers and headers so that they would not compete with other elements for attention, but function as interesting details for the book.
Adding Colors
Feeling that the white background looked kind of dull, I experimented with a few colors that could be added to different pages. In the end, I decided to color the text box while leaving the some white negative space for each page.
I also changed the weight of the description on each page to Gill Sans Light to make the hierarchy of the text more clear and easy to distinguish.
Map
I also illustrated a map to indicate the location of the five restaurants.
Cover
After completing the content pages, I started to work on the cover. I had been experimenting with a few different ways to place the illustrations and the texts.
Below is one of the design that I tried during the process. Although the layout and alignment looked more strategic, I felt that it looked a little dull given the white negative space. Therefore, I decided to use image instead of illustrations as the cover.
I also tried this design. The red in the middle and the pinkish background go with the blue title very well. Yet, my friends and I still felt that the image did not reflect the theme of the book very well.
To reflect the theme of the book more accurately, I used this picture as the cover. I also included the bridge illustration to highlight the book’s relevance to Pittsburgh.
Back
For the back of the book, I used the illustrations created previously and the same color scheme to increase the coherence of the book. I did not intend to use any image here because I felt that it is fine to leave large negative space for the back of the book.
Feedback for the draft
During the work session I received more feedback from Julia and Kaylee regarding my draft.
- Refining the grid and spacing between images.
- There were still a few moments of tension in the pages. The texts were near the edge of text box/images.
- The color of the map should be more consistent with the cover or the rest of the pages.
III. Working towards the final version
After refining the grid and spacing, I moved on to figure out a better color palette. Drawing colors from the cover image, I generated the below color palette.
I also changed the color of “CONTENTS” and “THE MAPS” to the same blue as in the cover so that all the pages would look more consistent.
Below are the final verion of my visual book (in order).
IV. Reflection
Overall the whole process of designing the visual book has been a very meaningful experience. I had the chance to incorporate the design concepts and techniques that I had learned from the past.
Based on the feedback from my classmates, one of the important things that I need to work on is the color. Many reflected that the tone of the cover image, which looks very calm, did not go well with the vibrant images in the content. Perhaps I could use illustrations rather than that image for the cover, which would be more consistent with the other food images.
